about -- i'm sure you've had many conversations with people across the table who might not agree with you, but have you had conversations with people who clearly are struggling with a disinformation or misinformation and expounding it back to you? how do you engage that person especially if it's someone who you don't have this close personal relationship with? because i think that's where most of the clashes come in, when there isn't that bond, that personal bond. >> that is a very, very challenging question to answer. what i would start off with, however, is everything is energy. we don't always acknowledge that, but maybe eventually come to it. and the funny thing about where

i stand is many people, you know, sort of use that as a smorgasbord. even people on extremely opposite facts, not those who are severely racist, but most or many people, whether you're on the right or the left, find ways to embrace some of the verbiage of that, it's not always interpreted correctly. so i'm always willing to challenge people on the interpretation or at least to look at the whole statement in context. you know, i think that because there's an automatic initial level of some respect, there's an ability to sort of communicate and as i said, i think that dad focused, and my mom, on teaching us how to disagree without being

disagreeable. that is real. the question is, does it really-- can you really change a person? i think that we change people by our actions, and our interactions. and if -- we somehow have to maintain our dignity. we start off with treating everybody with dignity and respect. the problem is that's not always reciprocated. everyone is not going to always be respectful, but you have to figure out how do i demand a level of respect from you and i give you that as well. as opposed to wanting to just overshadow you. so, it's a complicated issue. i would have to say my interactions personally though have always been very positive. that's because i start off from

a positive perspective. it does not mean that a person has to totally agree with me. that's fine. you don't have to. but i would want to share as much information so that you can at least consider. part of the problem is we are all sometimes relegated to a box or living in a glass house because this is what you hear 24/7 and i'm going to use an example, i don't want to use, but i'm going to use it anyway. okay, fox news says they're fair and balanced. well, where do you see that? if you're thinking. but why do you believe that? because that's what they tell you all day long. they're fair and balanced, how do you know? because they told us that, that doesn't mean they are. that can be with any slogan, i just used fox. but if you listen to any of our news outlets. it's programming us.

it's no longer-- back when i was growing up, i'm going to date myself and many of you won't know this, but walter cronkite and several others on the news they were truly just delivering the news. they didn't tell you what they thought-- what you thought you saw or what they thought you saw or what they wanted you to see, but you didn't see. this is what happens today we're told stuff over and over again that's just not true. if you don't know it's not true then you embrace it, but when you-- even when you present facts sometimes, people don't hear the facts, they have different facts, as you started off, jonathan. and it's complicated time and complicated issues. i think first we build coalitions with those who have a level of agreement because you've got to start there, but you build a very, very strong coalition and then you begin to reach out to others.

i mean, you know, we have a problem with history in this nation, period. i don't know how we talk about history all the time and we leave out the indigenous population, you know? we've got a lot of problems with the black community, the latino and hispanic community has a lot of problems. maybe europeans communities, some have problems. poor whites have problems in america, as poor blacks do. but we don't even talk about-- we're acting like the indigenous population wasn't here and they tell us every day, they still teach columbus found america, so, columbus got lost and there were people here, i don't know if you find something when somebody was already here if the interpretation of what is said. somehow we have to go back and deal with truth, the real truth. that's not a diminish what columbus did or to diminish what those called founding fathers did.

i know we're going to have a conversation about that later, but we have a lot to overcome and i guess i'm concerned more so today about what is going to happen with the advent of false information because of ai. ai is amazing, but it's also very concerning as to how do you build guardrails. you can build guardrails with allies, but how do you build guardrails with russia and north korea and other places in the world where there are real problems. the middle east, where there are real problems. how do you build the guardrails around information that, i mean, certainly the medical arena is going to be great things happening there, but the fact that you can say you're somebody that you're not. or you can totally displace someone's identity.

i'm just saying that these are all things that we have to deal with. in addition to saving our democracy. >> right. >> and that is a nice segue into talking about the role of education in preserving our democracy. i don't know how many of you saw this clip from an interview that jacob did on msnbc with a focus group watching the debate and i believe the young man's name was marcus. a young black guy who jacob says, you said something to me during the debate, why don't you repeat it and basically gave a civics lesson and they're talking-- j.d. vance is saying that the vice-president is supposed to do that. anyone who has taken a civic course knows that the vice-president doesn't have any power. the vice-president does what the president says. and for him to say that and for that to get as much attention as it did just sort of highlights the fact that education in civics and how our country works and how

government works is another thing that has eroded. and i want to move away from that, and there's been talk how nobody is taught anything in grade school. and talk about weaponizing education and weaponizing-- yeah, weaponizing education to the point where teachers are afraid. teachers are afraid. librarians are afraid. lots of people are afraid to teach objective facts and fatima, the organization, the national women's law center released a new report last week entitled i don't know how much longer i can do this, teachers experiences, amid attacks on public education. tell us quickly about that report and what you found out. >> we're really proud of our new report. we were really trying to

explore how teachers went from a real public understanding as being heroes, being essential workers, to so deeply demonized in such a short period and we wondered how they're faring. you know, teachers have been the site of violent attacks, of smears and a range of new laws and rules that make it nearly impossible for them to do their jobs, and so, we surveyed teachers in states like michigan and pennsylvania and florida and georgia and what we heard was really distressing. we heard from that, i don't know how much longer i can continue to do this. we also, you know, there was a teacher in michigan that really stood out and talked how she was terrified of being fired for teaching a controversial subject and the controversial subject was racism.

so that we have moved the line and made it impossible for them to do their job. teachers, you know, they understand that the way to get a kid to learn is to build a deep relationship with them and yet, they're being told, it is illegal to recognize their humanity, to address them by the name they prefer, to address them by their own pronounce, and so they're in this impossible box and so we really believe fundamentally that it's not an accident that teachers have been such a site of vitriol because it's a job that a lot of women do, it's not only to devalue the work that women do, but additional site for hate and anger in this time where there is so much hate and anger toward women that we're seeing, more accepted culturally.

>> i want to-- since we have a lot of young people here in the audience, how many of you are actually of voting age? okay. that's great. how many of you right now as we're sitting here right now, 34, 35 days out before the election, how many of you are going to vote? okay. i have hope for the future. because all of you-- >> i'm not going to lie, i was very nervous when you asked that question. >> thank you, brandon, it's not just me and i'm being very serious, because you know, you read in the newspapers and you hear on television that you know, young people aren't enthusiastic. young people aren't going to come out and vote, and so, for the young people who aren't in this room, who aren't still on the fence, saying that they're not going to vote, what can be

done to increase that voter, that voter engagement and particularly among black and brown-- black and brown communities? go ahead, professor. >> i was going to say that i'm going to get back to that civic infrastructure thing which i know is quite professorial of me to talk about that, but there's a way to do it. you can create -- you can create cohorts of voters. in other words, young people, you know, you have a -- you're going to vote and you have a couple of friends saying, i'm not going to vote. come on, let's do it together. it will be fun, maybe we'll go have lunch and listen to music, things like that. this is the way you build. s this the way we build community during the civil rights music. we use today play chess together, listen to jazz together. it was real, it was human. so, i think what's going on here and what you're talking about, so much of what's been going on has been ai, not human, you know, and malcolm

gladwell wrote an article, 2015, called the revolution will not be tweeted. right? and what he was saying is that social media's fine to make connections like find out about people, but to take the kind of risks that we're talking about now, you have to have a real-- the kind of thing that you were talking about. you have to have a real trust and you can only build that face-to-face and you have an opportunity to do that. go and find the magic number seven. find six or seven of your friends and go and vote together and after you've done that reach out other groups of seven who have voted together start talking about what the experience was and build from there. [applause] >> we're playing hot potato with the mic. >> i just have two quick thoughts on this. the first thing, if you want young people to feel that their vote matters, to show up to the ballot box, you have to talk to

them and don't talk down to them, but have a conversation with them, right? i'm seeing lots of thank yous. thank you. i'm not gen z, but i'm gen z at heart. young people are so good at having fun and finding joy in politics and work and all of that, but that does not mean that they don't take the issues seriously and one of the things that i've learned, i've done a lot of work with young gun violence organizers, one thing he have' learned, they have nuanced about policy. and they can sit in rooms and talk about policy. if you want young people to show up at the ballot box you have to have conversations about policy. talk to young people about student loan debt, talk to young people about the cost of rent and talk to young people about foreign policy because they care and they're

passionate about what's happening around the world. that's number one. if you want young people to show up, you have to talk to them and have real complex conversations with them. and the second, i think, it goes back to your education question, and i think we've done a real disservice to generations of young people by not helping them understand how powerful they are on every level of government. it breaks my heart when i hear people talking about voting for someone in a presidential election cycle, but they don't know who sits on their city council. they don't know who their state representative is, they don't know what their state legislature is part-time instead of full-time. and these are basic things that people should be equipped with from a very early age so that they know, if you really care about, you know, the taxes you're paying or the cost of things in your neighborhood, the person who sits on the city or county commission probably has more to do with that than the president ever will and you have so much to be held

accountable and i'd love to look into lean into every level of government. [applause] >> hold on, hold on one second, mr. king, because i want to do something. i want to do something. because this is the most engaged group of young people. i mean, come on. this is like a focus group right here. no, no, no, no. no, no, no, because we'll be here all afternoon. all right. so i see you're clapping, you're snapping. you're doing everything. and basically you want brandon to run for office. >> yes! (applause) >> you've all been nodding and snapping. what's the one thing that's resonated from what you've heard up here today, particularly from brandon. and does-- i'm going to come over here. >> i'm going to hold onto the

mic. yeah, your name, your year, where you're from. >> hi, my name is zion young and i go for a school-- i'm in grade 11, one thing that you said that caught my attention was our educational system and how a lot of older people don't see our eyes as young adults when it comes down to politics. they think that oh, because we're young, you don't understand, you don't know or comprehend it fully or develop it as well as they can, but we can and it's so important that our voices are heard because we are the next generation to come into politics and into policies. so when he says the educational system and government is all -- [applause] >> two more people, i know this is unorthodox and i'm sorry for social media trying to keep the eyes up there, but-- >> name, where are you from? age, grade. >> i'm from washington d.c., i go to a charter school and i'm a 12th grader.

one thing that he said that got to me was how you have to talk to us because don't talk down to us, because we are -- [applause] >> we're actually very smart kids, and you have to frame things differently to us because we-- there's some kids that are really, really smart, but people don't know how to speak to them and they can't convey the ideas, and when the older generation, you don't know what you're talking about or you're wrong and beat us down so we can't get our point out. that stuck out to me because that's the truth. [applause] >> last one. >> name, grade, where are you from. >> hello, my name is dominic, i'm from d.c. and i'm a 9th grader at charter school for journalism and media arts. what resonated with me when you were talking about influencing the youth and how you've got to talk to us, because like i feel like you're never too old to learn anything because life is full of learning and making

mistakes, so-- >> i'm going to tell you as a 57-year-old, you are correct. [laughter]. >> so, my apologies, mr. king, but i could not let that opportunity go by because they really, really engage and the 9th grader, you're not eligible to vote yet. you've got one more cycle. but go ahead, mr. king. >> i just have one comment for consideration. in our nation when one goes to college and if you're in the military, the rotc, you graduate as a lieutenant, which is a commanding officer in the military, which means that you have 15 to 25 troops that you tell what to do. so if you can be at 21 graduating the average age, maybe from college, a commanding officer, why then can't you offer yourself to run

for school board, to run for state legislative office, to run for, you know, mayors in some cases. most of those jobs are part-time and the way you get young people engaged is you have young people lead. so, it is important to think about, i have these ideas, i don't like the total curriculum, i want to change, hypothetically some of the things that we're taught in school, but if you're on the board of education, you make those decisions. and you make those decisions for others, and so the more we have young people in the process, in that way, as from the elected side because you can-- you're doing it all the time. so, don't not consider offering yourselves for public office positions. [applause]. >> so we have just about 10

minutes left. i'm going to combine two things. one, i mean, we've sort of touched on expanding access to the ballot box and voter education, but i wonder if there's anything in that topic area that we haven't touched on that we should before we go do closing remarks? go ahead, fatima? >> well, so everything you all said was right not just for young people who may be voting for the first time, but i think that any voter, we can't be at doors or on phones or in community meetings and talking down to people and i actually think we also have to level with folks about a few things and one of those things is that sometimes change takes a long time, and that's hard to hear. that is hard to hear that it's not just one election i'm going to ask you to vote in, i'm going to actually ask you to keep voting each time and especially now, you know, i really think we're in a giant

contention for who we're going to be in the future right now and that's why it feels so tough. so, i -- that levelling with people without talking down, the real talk, because people can handle it, is a thing that's been on my mind and i guess a related thing that's been on my mind is talking about what people care about, right? when someone says student loans, i saw all of you all like, hands up, you were thinking about it. we need to be talking about things that are on your mind, not just what i'm also thinking about, so, thank you for at that reminder today. >> what i was just saying, talk to people and the other half of that is listen to people. and the 9th grader here, i say 9th grade. it's like, yeah, i mean, the thing is that we have no idea

how much brilliance and capability there is, just waiting to come to fruition, if we would just step out of the way. we have to understand, you know, none of this wait your turn business. we don't have time for that. any of you young people from your age to mine, who has something to offer, come on, come to the table and let's do this. we've got to do this together. african proverb, you probably heard. you want to go fast, go alone. you want to go far, go together. [applause] >> brandon, do you have anything to add on this access to the ballot box, voter education that we haven't already touched on. >> yeah, i guess i would underscore what you were saying, which is this idea i talked about the disservice we do to generations of people when we don't teach them how powerful they are at every level of government. i also think we do a disservice when we treat democracy like a one-day holiday and not a 365,

24/7 group activity that requires us all the time deeply engaged with each other. democracy is not one election every few years, democracy is every day and democracy is also not a destination, an election, is not a destination, right, these things are check points on a journey that we're on together and i think we have to be honest with people about that, right? it's like the candidates that you're looking at are not perfect, they're human beings, but they are the vehicle that you are choosing to help move things in the direction that we're all trying to get to. and it's going to require you to, yes, show up on election day, but then show up on november 6th and told them accountable and november 7th and november 8th and keep showing up every single day, so i hope that as we have conversations about what kind ever country we want to be, first we can break out of this

isolation problem that we're in, we can learn to communicate with each other, we can look at each other in the face, put down the phones, get out from behind the screens and have real dialogs with one another and i also hope we can build a muscle around democracy that helps us understand it's our obligation to be engaged in it every single day, 24 hours a day, that it's about the conversations we're having at a thanksgiving table, not just the piece of paper we put in a box in november. >> (applause). [laughter] >> this is my constituency here. >> yes, it is. you're speaking to them. [applause] >> i was going to add something to that and it will come back to me, you know. i had a part-time-- no, i don't have that. let me take that back, but let me say this because one of the

things that president obama said to our nation was if i'm able to win, i need your help governing. most of us just chill. okay, you got it. we are going to let him handle it. no, you have to create the climate and the condition so that the nation can respond because experts are telling the president one thing, whoever the president may be, but the people also need to engage and stay engaged because if there's no -- no information, no engagement by the community, then you know, the president, whatever the experts tell them, him or her to do, that's what they're going to do. we're living in a world, it's a frightening situation with potential of war right on our -- right now on our precipice. now, that's always been a

threat, but it feels like it's greater now than ever before and as i said, i have to go back to what dad said. human kind must learn to balance or we will face nonexistence. the things that we see happening in our country that are negative are not sustainable. it doesn't mean we don't need to have difference, that's fine, or a different way to do things. there are ways for us to accomplish most of the objectives that are responsible. i think that can be done, but i also think that, you know, we've got to find a way to stay, if you will, on the battlefield. i don't know if i like that analogy, but i think it's an analogy that we can understand. it's just to engage, that doesn't mean 24/7, but for those really interested it might mean 24/7 for those of us

moderately interested, it means staying engaged and that's why every election cycle is important not just one because things are determined down the road. for example, you know, i've been involved in-- from over a year how, a campaign to get the supreme court expanded because in my lifetime the supreme court, we've gone to the supreme court many times to expand rights and privileges and back in 2013 the supreme court eviscerated the voting rights act and you know, one of the things that we often say is, if voting rights people wanted you to do, why are they fighting so hard to keep you from voting? thank you about that. there are rules that are signed in many states, my own state of georgia, you can't even give somebody water in line who is

waiting to vote, a senior, that's illegal. i mean, you get a ticket, you get a misdemeanor, but for voting, really? bottom line, and i'm going to go out here and say, we haven't gotten there yet, but we're working on technology. now this phone that we all have, we pay bills with it, we order anything we want on it, why can't we also vote on our phones? that's a real possibility. [applause] >> and that technology, mobile technology, we have a lot of work to do to get to that point where it's totally secure, but you know, i was telling somebody the other day, you know, i pay thousands of bills, not one time are they coming to say, well, we didn't get your money this time. it always makes it. so, if i can pay my bill, which i think is an important thing, on a phone, then we should be able to vote. we should be able to register, we should have same day registration, it should be very

easily done, and it can be done. there are those who want to push back, but we need to be pushing forward and the only way we push forward is we all or many of us engage and say, look, we want to go forward with these things. >> in an effort to keep us on time, and going to have to let that be each one of you has given a great final thought, but to put some historical context on what mr. king was just talking about, president obama saying to everyone help me govern, the fantastic story about mr. king's father, dr. king, correct me if this story is wrong, coming back from oslo, having been awarded the nobel peace prize, he and andrew young stopped off here in washington to have a meeting with president johnson. they had just gotten the 1964 civil rights act passed and they were pushing for voting rights act and the meeting with the president, with president johnson, they pleaded with the president, bring the voting rights act up for a vote and